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The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is excited to announce that it has awarded a Project Development Grant to Leigh Atherton and Tyldesley Heritage Trust to advance plans to convert Tyldesley Technical School - a locally significant historic building – into a multi-purpose community, heritage and commercial space.
This was one of 15 awards made at the July grants meeting, where projects across England, Scotland and Wales were awarded funding totalling £196,091.
It is also among the latest batch of grants to be awarded through the AHF’s Heritage Revival Fund in England, with £88,605 given in support of 6 different projects in July, ranging from a theatre building in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, to a former church in Ilfracombe, Devon. Delivered in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Historic England, this programme forms part of the government’s wider £270 million investment in arts and culture. It has been created to help communities rescue and repurpose neglected historic buildings, with a specific focus on town centre locations, transforming them into vibrant spaces that meet modern needs.
Tyldesley Technical School is located within the Tyldesley Town Centre Conservation Area and the Tyldesley Heritage Action Zone. It was originally built as a technical school that provided education to people working in local collieries, mills, and engineering works. Formally opened in 1904, it was one of the earliest schools of its type in the North West, and was notable for its unique, state-of-the-art underground mine training suite, which was used to train miners before they entered the pits. The school remained in use until 2003, when it was subsequently taken over by King’s Church, which used a quarter of the building, with the remainder of the space serving different community purposes. However, this use eventually ceased, and the building was sold to a private owner in 2022.
Image: The interior of Tyldesley Technical School.
Leigh Atherton and Tyldesley Heritage Trust (LATH) was established by a group of local residents with a passion for improving the community and rescuing heritage assets at risk. In order to protect and maintain Tyldesley Technical School for future generations, LATH secured a lease on the building and has undertaken some urgent renovation work to bring it back into partial use. Now, to make full use of the building once again, further surveys and capital works are required.
LATH’s aim for this project is to create the Tyldesley Technical School Community Hub. This will include community space for a wide variety of uses; rentable space for not-for-profit and commercial organisations; a café; a permanent base for a dance organisation; and a cycle hub in the back yard. Additionally, there will be space for heritage activities within the building, including a local heritage facility focused on the underground mine training suite; this will also serve as a base for LATH and the continued Heritage Action Zone programme.
Images: The underground mine training suite inside Tyldesley Technical School.
The AHF Heritage Revival Fund grant will contribute towards the final pieces of development work needed to identify a specific set of capital costs for this project, including architectural input to RIBA stage 4 for the ground and first floor designs, an update on the business plan, and planning for improvements to the heating system, access and security.